The MLB Playoffs are around the corner, and now is the time to pull out the cards from the playoff teams. Every year, players get hot and so do their cards. I remember just a few short seasons ago Cody Ross, Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell were some of the San Francisco Giants that got love during their world series (and would have been a great time to sell based on today's prices).

2012 Upper Deck SP Authentic Golf since the 2005 Upper Deck SP Authentic Golf release. It has one of my favorite golfers, Ricky Barnes, and many other very talented players - including the man Tiger Woods. Upper Deck announced a while back that they had Rory McIlroy as a new player signer, however I didn't see any of his cards in this set. It might be a sign that more golf products are coming, or at lease we can (hopefully) expect 2013 SP Authentic Golf next year.

2012 Panini Prominence Football came out on 9/26 and it is selling for about $100 per box if you were to buy the entire thing. I've noticed more & more box break websites pop up as time has gone on - and wanted to analyze the amount each team was going for vrs the price of the box. The numbers are interesting, however keep in mind that selling box breaks on eBay is (technically) against their terms of service (at least eBay has removed them in the past), so you need to keep that in mind if you want to do this on eBay.

Even after you take off ~ 20% for eBay/PayPal fees, these numbers will generate you a nice profit on boxes purchased wholesale for ~ $75 dollars. The seller charged $2.50 for shipping, and it's possible some teams don't even get shipped, and certainly would cover just a small amount of cards + bubble mailer costs. I expect margins in this business to continue to shrink as more people setup box-break sites almost everyday. In the near future, you'll need to add value (trust) in order to compete in this business. But right now, the profit margins are higher than selling boxes the traditional way.

As a collector, there certainly are some deals here. The Bengals for $0.99 and an average price of $3.99 is not bad considering Mohamed Sanu is part of the 35 players Panini re-runs in the rookie sets. They also have several players in the non-photo shoot signers. The New York Giants for $0.99 was also a deal, they have David Wilson and Rueben Randle in the 35 photo shoot rookies, and they both have generous print runs. This is why box breaks are good deals for the value hunter and the seller - because both can win in this transaction.